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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29718618">Eclipse</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SignificanttOtter/pseuds/SignificanttOtter'>SignificanttOtter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Destiny (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Hive, Mara doesn't actually appear but she's in people's head rent-free, Season of the Hunt, The Dreaming City, girl help i can't stop thinking of the shadowkeep narrative preview, love triangle except one side is platonic, toland has a body for hand holding purposes only</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-02-26</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 18:41:33</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,772</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29718618</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SignificanttOtter/pseuds/SignificanttOtter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Eris knows the threat posed by her enemies. Toland fears she does not see the danger of her friends.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Eris Morn &amp; Mara Sov, Eris Morn/Toland</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Eclipse</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Among the unkept tangle of overgrowth called the Garden of Esila, two trios of eyes survey a cryptolith blooming from the reflecting pond like a terrible weed. From a distance, in the deep purple Vestian night, they could be mistaken for a pair of stalking acolytes separated from the rest of their group. Closer inspection reveals the eyes belong not to hive, but <i>mostly</i> human figures.</p><p>Eris Morn sits cross-legged in the evening-dewy grass, frantically jotting down phonetic approximations of the incantations broadcast by the growth, while Toland, crouching beside her, keeps watch for interlopers. She is less concerned by the roaming hive than the possibility of being found by a stray guardian or patrolling corsair. </p><p>Unsatisfied with the blurry images and unintelligible audio brought to her by scouts, Eris first traveled to 4 Vesta to study the cryptoliths in-person. The case was in capable hands, but Eris felt a personal duty to investigate. When the Last City had been transformed into a place of hostility and suspicion, The Reef had become a second home. The Dreaming City in particular reminds Eris of Mara, and Mara reminds Eris of relearning her worth without the Light, of discovering life can be something beyond survival. She owes it to her friend, even if she is lightyears away fighting her own secret war.</p><p>And, well, there are other things that entice her to keep coming back. Her summer on Io had made her ache for living worlds, and the months of silence between her and Toland had made her yearn for his company.</p><p>On that foggy night in the Divalian Mists, she sensed the once-warlock before she saw him. She told him shyness did not suit him, and beckoned him out of hiding. He appeared to her then as he had on the moon, a darting spark of ascendant energy. Toland, equal parts curious and vain, obsessed with his own clever exploitation of alien systems, eventually learned to project something approaching a corporeal form when the curse was high and the distinction between realities was particularly irrelevant.</p><p>Toland catches Eris' attention with a brush of her shoulder. She looks first to him — tonight he appears as he did in life, save for some hive enhancements — then down across the garden. She spots the distant form of a guardian approaching with a lure in one hand and a rifle in the other. Their observation of the cryptolith is about to be violently interrupted. She tucks her journal away quickly and slinks off with her companion on silent feet before the shooting starts.</p><p>Owing its tenuous foothold in reality, The Dreaming City is porous, riddled with holes to itself and to the Ascendant Plane. This is always true, but it is especially true to those who can see and traverse in the fashion of the Hive. Together they easily chart a path elsewhere, though Eris could not have explained the process in terms that anyone without hive senses would understand.</p><p>Toland barks a single, humorless laugh as they navigate. "Lightbearers are such predictable creatures. Foolishly chasing the latest problem like a cat after a ball of string."</p><p>"What would you have them do?" Eris retorts, "Stand idle as Xivu Arath enthralls an army? Watch as she transforms Vesta into another of her war moons?"</p><p>"Were I your Vanguard, I would formulate a plan that doesn't serve the god of conflict tithe on a platter. <i>I</i> am certainly looking forward to seeing whether they strengthen her into a power capable of challenging the Witch Queen." He smirks. "Perhaps her triumph is not guaranteed."</p><p>"I wouldn't expect you to cheer for the God of War. She does not seem your . . . style."</p><p>"I cheer for no one," Toland says, and Eris believes him. "I watch and wait to see who proves themselves victorious. Whichever queen carves her name into eternity will have my respect."</p><p>"Even if that queen is not Hive?" Eris prods, skeptically. She leaves her question intentionally ambiguous, presuming Toland will understand the implication. From the sour look on his face he does. She can only assume his distaste for the Queen is born of envy . . . once, the circumstances of his death and afterlife had been unique among living things, but Mara Sov had stolen that mantle with Eris' help. <i>How much it must gnaw at him to know Mara had the honor of annihilation at Oryx's hands,</i> she muses silently, feeling perhaps a little too pleased at the thought. Toland would benefit from having his self-satisfaction challenged more often.</p><p>They emerge in a circular court near the Spine of Keres. Patches of tallgrass and sacred asphodelia lay nestled among jagged clusters of blue crystals, as gnarled, wind-swept conifers cling to the rocky soil. Ahead, past a pair of ansible lenses, a tall filigree gate leads to the magnificent stone and glass edifice where the Oracle Engine is housed. Eris feels bittersweet, overwhelming emotion swell in her chest. It was not so long ago that she met here with the Awoken Queen, though it feels like a lifetime had passed since that strange day. Within the course of hours, she had learned that death had claimed neither Toland nor Mara, though her Queen had managed to come back in a body not predicated on the paracausal tides of this place.</p><p>Toland had been like the moon then, a comforting light in the darkness. Mara had been like the sun: distant, warm, and formidable. Both had offered her life-giving hope. If only she had known how heavy the storm clouds would grow.</p><p>She sinks down onto a smooth agate terrace, shoulders slouching as she rests her forehead against her palms. She wishes for solitude to process her feelings, but it would be more trouble than it's worth to send Toland away.</p><p>"What's the matter?"</p><p>"It's nothing," she insists in a voice that rings hollow. She sighs and raises upright. "I am only thinking about our meeting in the High Coven."</p><p>A flicker of a smile crosses Toland's face. "I remember."</p><p>"And how we were pulled away from each other?"</p><p>"Yes." His somber mien reappears as he takes a seat beside her. "The Witch Queen was displeased that we met."</p><p>"She cast me out nearby. Being here brings back the emotion of that day." She takes a moment to steady her voice before continuing. "All I have ever done is lose the people I care most about. To have two return . . . I had not felt such triumph since Oryx's fall."</p><p>He lays his hand besides hers, brushing knuckle-to-knuckle, but doesn't take it. She shifts so her pauldron is out of the way, and leans her shoulder against his.</p><p>They rest a moment, still against each other under the dark, star-streaked sky. Hive eyes and taken blights twinkle in the distance. From far away they could be mistaken for something that belongs here among the fireflies and luminescent flowers and other sparkling, bright-eyed things native to the Dreaming City. It's almost beautiful. She tries not to linger on the flutter it puts in her chest.</p><p>She rearranges her arm against Toland's, clasping his hand in hers, and he reciprocates.</p><p>"Eris?" he probes, gentler than she's used to.</p><p>"Yes?"</p><p>Restraint with words is not something Toland is typically known for, so Eris finds herself wondering what could be so difficult to say that it silences him. Under the chitinous additions, she can read the familiar look of trouble on his sharp features.</p><p>"I've had unlimited time to reflect on how I hurt you," he finally speaks. "I went to Luna wishing to study the enemy so that we could vanquish them. But I was too blinded by ambition to care that I was using you — our whole team — as means to an end."</p><p>It is Eris' turn to go quiet. While they had broached this topic before in their many long talks on the moon, it has never gotten any easier to discuss.</p><p>"You have unimaginable willpower," he continues. "Perhaps more than anyone else to ever live. That you learned the ways of the Hive and communed with the Darkness without falling is proof of this. I have no doubt you will remain incorrupt."</p><p>Since crawling out of the pit, Eris has been used to people doubting her loyalty to the Light. It had always stung, but the pain has grown especially sharp since her studies of the Darkness on Io began. To hear such an open affirmation of her strength makes her heart pound and her cheeks prickle with heat. </p><p>". . . but I fear your steadfast loyalty will imperil you in ways the enemy cannot. If a friend should once more try to use you as a means to an end, will you meet them with the same indomitability that you show your enemies?"</p><p>He doesn't give a name, but doesn't need to. Not when they sit in a world fashioned by Her will and wishes, a place where everything reflects the dazzling radiance of the Queen. Eris' head swims at the realization that his disdain is born not of petty jealousy, but <i>fear</i>. She is heartened and horrified at the thought. </p><p>"Do you expect nefarious plots by my allies?" She finally asks after a few beats.</p><p>"I cannot divine the intentions of others," he replies, gaze shifting to his lap. "I did not expect to endanger you when we ventured into the Hellmouth and yet my actions nearly cost you your life."</p><p>She has a reflexive urge to dismiss his words; to remind him that he has never seen the look of warmth in the Queen's face, nor heard the admiration with which she speaks of her. Eris opens her mouth to speak, but her voice is stopped by her memories of Toland. Hadn't he also gazed upon her with admiration? Protected her when they fought side-by-side? She was quite sure that he'd had real feelings for her, but it hadn't stopped him from using her — all of them — as a stepping-stone on his journey to ascendance. Even if he speaks from a place of unresolved guilt, his logic is fundamentally sound.</p><p>The comfortable, twinkling Dreaming City night becomes a bit more cold and alien than it had been.</p><p>"I court danger every day," she replies honestly. "If you trust me to keep my wits about me when dealing with my enemies, you can trust me to do the same with my friends. I know how high the stakes are, and what will be lost if I am."</p><p>"I know you will do the right thing," he says. "I only hope it is the right thing for <i>you</i>."</p><p>As does she.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have a lot of thoughts about Eris', Toland's and Mara's weird interpersonal dynamics, and wanted to explore them on the background of the Dreaming City. Partially because all of them are tied to it in one way or another, and partially because it provides a romantic setting for hive-spotting. :)</p><p>This was conceived as a short piece based on the idea that Toland dislikes Mara not because she one-upped him, but because Toland sees the similarities between himself and Mara and fears she will hurt Eris much as he did. </p><p>On my first draft, I got bogged down trying to justify everyone's feelings and lost track of the actual plot. I was inspired by various pieces of lore between Mara and Eris and Toland, but the Shadowkeep web lore is the most relevant here, since it actually features Eris' first meetings with Toland and Mara since their respective deaths/remakings. It's not necessary reading to understand this fic, but it will probably help.</p><p>Thanks to <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tower_Pigeon_428/">Tower_Pigeon_428</a> for beta reading and editing. Constructive criticism is very much welcome, as always.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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